South Korea is often on the forefront of the adoption of tech
trends -- remember when people said that ringtones and virtual
goods would never sell outside South Korea? -- but this means
that SK Telecom's growth has been slowing: everyone in South
Korea who might buy one already has a smartphone.

So it wants to move up the value chain with its own mobile
operating system and platform, competing directly with Nokia,
Apple and Google's platforms.

This seems pretty much doomed. Nokia, Apple and Google (and
Microsoft!) are all much bigger and much farther ahead in terms
of building their own platforms, where network effects are all
important, and a slight lead can mean eventual total dominance.
Plus, SK Telecom's previous attempts at international expansion
have pretty much failed: it sold its US venture Helio to Virgin
Mobile losing tons of money, and recently sold its share of its
Chinese joint venture. Given that SK Telecom wants to build its
platform with partnerships with other international telcos who
are getting rich selling iPhones and Android phones, this track
record isn't encouraging.

That said, we're in a good mood this morning so we'll point out a
few things SK Telecom has going for it:

It does own 50% of one of the savviest mobile markets in the
world. It must mean a thing or two about what consumers want --
or more importantly, what they will want.

Even if it doesn't build a globally successful platform, it
still has a decent chance at locking up the South Korean market,
and maybe a couple other Asian markets, which given how much they
use their internet phones, is still pretty juicy.

Telcos are selling tons of smartphones right now thanks to
Apple and Google, but they're also (justifiably) scared of them.
Telcos want to keep controlling the value chain in mobile. So
international partnerships to build a global mobile platform
might be a good ticket for them, if only as a hedge against Apple
and Google.